Category: Youth Shaped

YouShape Week was a great success across West Sussex – read on to find out more about what happened in each District.

Horsham

Horsham’s YouShape event for 2018 was a competition survival camp for Explorers. They were separated into teams and competed against each other for the whole weekend starting when they created they’re off the ground shelters. There was a number of activities over the weekend including archery, pioneering, an escape room, frisbee golf and Kubb. We also held a forum around a campfire in the evening and got a good discussion going and got some great points that we can take into the future. The winning team even walked away with a handmade trophy prize and everyone who attended received one of the West Sussex Youth Commissioner wristbands. Many thanks to all the support we had over the weekend from the archery team, the District Hillwalking team and other leaders for their general help in running the event.
Nora Westerdijk – DYC

Adur Valley

Over the course of a weekend, Adur Valley invited members from all its Explorer units to take part in a team building camp. The intention of this camp was to get all the Explorer units to integrate and get to know members of different groups.
On the Friday evening after all the Explorers had arrived and pitched their tents, we had a relaxed evening in the hut chatting, keeping warm in front of the fire and watching a film.Saturday was a full day of hard work and challenges! The Explorers were split into 3 teams, with at least one member of each unit in a team. The first and biggest challenge of the day was hiking to Bramber Castle with only a map and no time to plan the route. This challenge seemed to go down well with all the Explorers as many of them are very competitive and are currently in the middle of planning and completing the DofE hikes. Each team left one hour after each other so they couldn’t cheat and just follow each other! Teams 1 and 3 managed to make it there and back with times of just under 2 hours, however team 3 managed to take a big detour into Shoreham high street and made it back with a time of around 3 hours. Whilst the teams weren’t hiking, they all helped to clear the Chapel area of the District Campsite.
After all the teams were back, fed and warmed up, they took part in many team building challenges in the afternoon. The first challenge of the afternoon was the human tarantula challenge. Each team competed to see how far they could move up the hall without them collapsing. The next activity was a human knot followed by the spider’s web, which was a tricky one for them to complete. The next team challenge they took part in was trying to make the tallest tower out of bamboo canes and string that could support an egg, with some alternative designs. The final team challenge before dinner was a numbers game. This game definitely seemed to be the favourite of the afternoon with the County Youth Commissioners joining in when they visited. After dinner we had a forum activity where we asked all the Explorers their ideas of what they would like us to run as a District and what they would like to do within their units.
Sunday morning was nice and relaxed and featured some small relaxing challenges such as making a crown from items they found in the forest, an A-Z treasure hunt, and finding a stick as close to 2 metres as they could. Overall, it was a successfully weekend with all the Explorers really enjoying it and wanting to do it again.
Eleanor Francis – DYC

Chichester

Around 100 young members from Scouting across Chichester came together for a weekend of challenges, excitement, and lots of fun.
Beavers and Cubs took part in a treasure Hunt with a twist where they had to use their navigational skills to piece together a puzzle to complete the activity. The other challenge comprised of six different activities in which they had 15 minutes to complete.
Then the Scouts and Explorers were mixed up and sorted into groups with others they might not have known. They took part in four different challenges which included shelter building and tent pitching with a twist. New friendships were made throughout the day and all the young people had a brilliant attitude.
All the young people joined together to take part in a forum-based activity, ‘The Emoji Cool Wall’, which gave them the opportunity to discuss a variety of subjects in scouting they enjoy and learn from more than others. We got some great feedback which we’ll use in the future planning district events!
The young people of today, are the generation of tomorrow. We cannot wait to see what the future holds from everything these young people have started to plan and put into action. Overall a brilliant weekend had by all!
Joe Hellyer & Rachael Grantham – DYC’s

Worthing

On Saturday the 10th of February, I ran a YouShape day for around 20 Scout PL and APL’s. We started the day off making Scout shields. On the shield they had to paint a motto, an activity they have enjoyed in Scouting and an activity they want to do in the future. The scouts came up with some great shields:

We then had a snowball fight with pieces of paper that the Scouts had written their favourite games on and after each Scout read out what was on their piece of paper. Lots of the Scouts found new game ideas that they were excited to play and can take back to their groups. The Scouts then chose a couple of games to play before we had lunch, this involved making a human pyramid!
After lunch, we had a treasure hunt where the Scouts had to find different boxes that had different themed activity ideas in them and decide what ideas were their favourites and then come up with a programme using the ideas they had chosen. We then did Dragons Den and the Scouts came up with ideas based around Scouting and they had to make good pitches so that the judges (the leaders) could decide who to invest in. All of them had very compelling pitches, however the Guinness Book of Records: Scout Edition won.After a well-deserved biscuit break, the Scouts wanted to play some more games so they chose between themselves what they wanted to play and organised it. At the end of the day I asked the Scouts to make a graffiti wall showing all the things they liked about Scouting, any new games or activities they got from the day and if there was anything they really wanted to do in the future. They spent a lot of time making the graffiti wall very colourful and got lots of ideas down that they can take back and share with their groups!
Tara Greenhalf – DYC

Bognor Regis

Houdini’s Office Escape Room

On Saturday 24th Feb teams of six Cubs and six Scouts descended on Bognor’s District HQ which had been reconfigured into an escape room, centred on the Master Magician himself!
The Cub teams had just under 30 minutes to complete the room which saw them deciphering codes to finding keys in jars of ‘potion ingredients’, they even had to track Houdini across the UK with a list of his tour locations, all to unlock the 9 locks that would grant them freedom!The Fastest Team, 1st Felpham Monday Cubs completed the room in amazing time of 15 minutes 24 seconds beating the next team by a staggering 3 minutes, a lot of time when there are six of you looking for clues!
The Scout teams had a slightly harder time in the ‘box of tricks’ the evil DYC team rearranged the room to ensure the Scouts had to be fully observant whilst taking part, this meant moving the decoding keys to the ceiling and adding in an extra two locks!
Nevertheless 2nd Bognor Scout Troop took it all in their stride and beat the room in only 17 minutes 30 seconds.

YouShape Forum- We’re Following the Leader…

After their daring escape the cubs set to work, deciding what makes a good leader? (Which turned out to be themselves!), doing some funny moves along the way and the Scouts chipped in together to create a banner of all things Scouting! Letting us know what their favourite thing in Scouting is and what they want to do next!

What is Next?

Now that our #YouShape event is over we’ve set our sights on the youngest youth section and we are in talks with the District Beaver Leader over what we could organise for Beavers this year.
Oh, we’ve also been approached by section leaders who were with their teams on Saturday about a Leaders Escape Room event; let’s just say that we’re thinking on-…shhhh!! We can’t reveal all our plans just yet!
Tom Weaver & Katherine Bilham – DYC’s

Arundel & Littlehampton

#YouthShape Month was a fantastic opportunity to really gain genuine insights as to how the experience of Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and indeed Explorers alike, can be furthered and developed. One of the founding principles of Scouting is the notion of self-improvement and being honest with oneself; giving groups and sections across Arundel and Littlehampton District the ability to do just that.
This saw us visiting as many different sections and groups across the District to run a YouShape evening. It started with us giving an introduction of what a youth commissioner is, who we all are and what YouShape is all about. After that we ran the cool wall activity, getting the young people to tell us which badges they think we’re uncool to sub-zero, with some interesting results. We got them to think about their most and least favourite activities and got them to note them all down. We also enjoyed quite a few snowball fights, something the young people really enjoyed! At the end of the session, everyone received the YouShape badge too for taking part. Everything we gained from the session was fed back to the leaders so they can include the ideas into the programme moving forward.
We really do look forward to seeing the positives come out of February and are thankful for the bettered understanding we’ve been able to gain from the young people we visited.
Arundel & Littlehampton DYC’s

Welcome from Hannah Cordrey, our new Assistant Youth Commissioner in her own words….

In the last couple of years, Scouting has become a large part of my life which all started when I joined Worthing Network. In 2015, I attended the World Scout Jamboree in Japan and came back wanting to get more involved with Scouting. I joined 1st Worthing Warwick Cubs as an assistant leader then in May 2017 I received my wood beads.

I have achieved my Queens Scout Award and I’m now a member of the Queen Scout Working Party (QSWP). I have attended and represented at national Scouting events such as the Queens Scout parade in Windsor, Westminster Abbey Thanksgiving Service and Cenotaph Whitehall London. By being part of the QSWP I have helped organise activities at national events such as Gilwell24 and Wintercamp. I’m also a D of E Leader at a local Open Centre, I hold the Gold award and I’m a qualified Assessor.

I’m very much looking forward to my new role as Assistant County Youth Commissioner for Events. I would like to look for opportunities at existing events to ensure young people are getting the most out of their Scouting. I’d also like to see our young people get involved/engaged in decisions that shape their Scouting experience across the County and excel from the new opportunities that arise from it.

February is #YouShape month and we want to make it the best yet! Youth Shaped Scouting takes place all year round, but again we’re focusing on it in February. We want to support young people and volunteers to embed this traditional part of Scouting into what we do and celebrate the amazing examples of Youth Shaped Scouting already taking place around the County.

During February, within each District, there will be a local event/activity run by your District Youth Commissioner teams which you should have received details about already, if not you will do soon.

The County will be running a youth ambassadors camp for Scouts which will be a chance to meet Scouts from across the county, have ago at fun and engaging activities and to learn leadership skills. You’ll receive more details from your District Commissioner in the new year.

Why not add a #YouShape evening into your programme in February to hear the views of your young people and get their input into the programme. There are fantastic resources available, including activity inspirations and activity postcards, on the Scout website, which will help you to do this.